1 Samuel 5-7, John 11: 45-57, Psalm 78: 9-16
1 Samuel 5: 6 (ESV)
“The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of
Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its
territory.
Verse 6 from 1 Samuel 5 talks about what happens to people
when touch the Ark of the Covenant when they’re not supposed to touch it. I
love this description of the Ark of the Covenant. Verse 6 reminds me of the Indiana Jones movie - "The Raiders of the Lost Ark." This description of the Ark of the Covenant is about
the extraordinary power of God. The Ark of the Covenant caused tumors to the
Philistines until they returned it back to Israel. But returning it to Israel wasn’t
enough. The Ark had to be returned to the right people because it killed 70 men
who looked at Ark after it was returned.
These stories about the power of God in the Old Testament
still aren’t enough to keep his people faithful to him. We seem to be a miracle
hungry people. We constantly need to be reminded of the power of God in miracles
or acts of power to keep our faith in him. I tell myself I’m not like that, but
I know I am because I’m a sinner deep down. I’ve had a couple of near-death
experiences which I know were miracles of God, and my faith in God was strengthened
for a while. But then I forgot about these miracles and started to lose faith
and doubt God again. Until another miracle happened and my faith was restored.
I hate that my faith is so dependent on seeing miracles in my life, but it is. The
only good thing now is I don’t forget God the way I used to that I did in my
youth, because I make a conscious effort to keep God always in my life. And
that conscious effort is on it’s a miracle in and of itself.
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